Michael Gove writes about blogging T2 this morning HERE. He writes...
When it comes to the web, are you John Julius Norwich, or Alan Clark? The Times’s Daniel Finkelstein has, this week, become the latest to follow in the footsteps of the second Viscount Norwich, while the statistics suggest that the author, broadcaster and former parliamentary candidate Iain Dale has become the obvious heir to the Clark legacy.
Daniel’s emulation of John Julius has nothing to do with his following Lord Norwich into the field of authoring culturally learned historical narrative. And Iain’s statistical claim to the Clark legacy has nothing to do with the number of romantic conquests that he’s chalked up. No, what links Daniel to Viscount Norwich, Iain to Alan Clark, and indeed all of them to each other, is the blogosphere.
Hmmm. I would beg to differ. Alan Clark was a friend of mine and I can think of at least a dozen things I don't have in common with him! Having said that, Michael pays me a tremendous compliment by even mentioning me in the same sentence as the late lamented Master of Saltwood. He was THE greatest political diarist of our times. I wish I had as much writing ability as Alan had in one finger. I met Jane Clark again at a lunch recently. Seven years on she has blossomed into an independent woman, but she clearly still misses Alan very much. Ion Trewin, the editor of the Clark Dairies is busy writing the official biography of the great man, which is scheduled for publication in 2009, I think.
10 comments:
What was interesting was that he really, really wanted to join the anti-blog tendency. So your brilliance won through. This is not really for publication, because I know you are so self-effacing.....
I don't know what to make of Mr Gove. All his posturing and 'look how right wing I am', always seems so false. He reminds me of Ed Vaizey without the puppy fat.
Can we expect you to run up and down the ramparts of various castles from now on?
I hope no one wants to horse whip you due to any extra curricular activities.
Talking of bloggers, what time does Guido get up in the morning ? Nothing on his blog at a time of such national crisis !
Well as you step gingerly into the shoes of Mr Clark, do try not to mention "Bongo-Bongo Land", there's a good chap.
Michael Gove (Tory MP, ex-Times)writes in the Times about Dannny Finkelein (Ex-Tory, Times) writing in the Times - a little circular, don't you think? Why would anyone else give a flying fig?
Guido gets up at about "screaming for my bottle time".
That is the baby screaming not Guido. Guido screams for a bottle at about 12.01pm, the baby at 4 or 5 a.m.
Thanks you for reminding us that it is quality, not quantity, that counts.
I look at Comment is Free and I see a combination of a dogmatic firestorm and a torrent of dross.
I look at your blog, Linford's, and now Finkelstein's and I READ good writing.
A rare gift amid all the trash out there.
I was diappointed in the way that Michael Gove's report was so scathing of ordinary bloggers. Blogging is not meant to be another literary review, he has missed the whole interactive point behind blogging which I have written about on my post.
You're right Iain - the comparison to Clark is wrong. Not that you don't have merit. As you say, Clark was different.
Gove can be perceptive but he will always suffer from looking like a schoolboy.
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